Menbal Copt gets three-year prison sentence for disdain of Islam

27-12-2018 03:13 PM

Nader Shukry

The Misdemeanour Appeals Court in Matai yesterday 26 December approved a three-year prison sentence handed by a lower court to the Copt Abdu Adel Ayad, 40, for disdain of Islam.

The story goes back to July 2018 when the Mr Ayad, who comes from the village of Menbal in Matai, Minya, some 250 km south of Cairo, posted on his Facebook page a link for an article that allegedly disdains Islam; the post was said to make comparisons between religions and put Islam at a disadvantage. When news of the post circulated in the village, a mob of village Muslims attacked the houses of the Menbal Copts, as an act of collective punishment against the Copts. Mr Ayad was detained by the police and has been held in custody ever since. The police arrested some 90 Muslim fundamentalist who had spurred the attack against the Copts or participated in it but, a few days later, Minya Security worked out of court conciliation settlement between the Copts and the Muslims, the result of which all the detainees were freed except for Ayad who now faces a three-year sentence.

Reaching Out

Watani started as an Egyptian weekly Sunday newspaper published in Cairo. The word Watani is Arabic for “My Homeland”. The paper was founded in 1958 by the prominent Copt Antoun Sidhom (1915 – 1995), who strove for the establishment of a civil, democratic society in Egypt, where all Egyptians would enjoy full citizenship rights regardless of their religious denomination. To this day when Watani is published as a weekly paper and an online news site, the objective remains the same. Those in charge of Watani view this role as a patriotic all-Egyptian vocation. Special attention is given to shedding light on Coptic culture and tradition as authentically Egyptian, this being a topic largely disregarded or little-understood by Egypt’s media. Watani is deeply dedicated to offer its readers high quality, extensive, objective, credible and well-researched media coverage, with special focus on Coptic issues, culture, heritage, and contribution to Egyptian society.